Proverbs 22

¹A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches,

And loving favor rather than silver and gold.

²The rich and the poor meet together:

Jehovah is the maker of them all.

³A prudent man seeth the evil, and hideth himself;

But the simple pass on, and suffer for it.

⁴The reward of humility and the fear of Jehovah

Is riches, and honor, and life.

⁵Thorns and snares are in the way of the perverse:

He that keepeth his soul shall be far from them.

⁶Train up a child in the way he should go,

And even when he is old he will not depart from it.

⁷The rich ruleth over the poor;

And the borrower is servant to the lender.

⁸He that soweth iniquity shall reap calamity;

And the rod of his wrath shall fail.

⁹He that hath a bountiful eye shall be blessed;

For he giveth of his bread to the poor.

¹⁰Cast out the scoffer, and contention will go out;

Yea, strife and ignominy will cease.

¹¹He that loveth pureness of heart,

For the grace of his lips the king will be his friend.

¹²The eyes of Jehovah preserve him that hath knowledge;

But he overthroweth the words of the treacherous man.

¹³The sluggard saith, There is a lion without;

I shall be slain in the streets.

¹⁴The mouth of strange women is a deep pit;

He that is abhorred of Jehovah shall fall therein.

¹⁵Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child;

But the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.

¹⁶He that oppresseth the poor to increase his gain,

And he that giveth to the rich, shall come only to want.

¹⁷Incline thine ear, and hear the words of the wise,

And apply thy heart unto my knowledge.

¹⁸For it is a pleasant thing if thou keep them within thee,

If they be established together upon thy lips.

¹⁹That thy trust may be in Jehovah,

I have made them known to thee this day, even to thee.

²⁰Have not I written unto thee excellent things

Of counsels and knowledge,

²¹To make thee know the certainty of the words of truth,

That thou mayest carry back words of truth to them that send thee?

²²Rob not the poor, because he is poor;

Neither oppress the afflicted in the gate:

²³For Jehovah will plead their cause,

And despoil of life those that despoil them.

²⁴Make no friendship with a man that is given to anger;

And with a wrathful man thou shalt not go:

²⁵Lest thou learn his ways,

And get a snare to thy soul.

²⁶Be thou not one of them that strike hands,

Or of them that are sureties for debts.

²⁷If thou hast not wherewith to pay,

Why should he take away thy bed from under thee?

²⁸Remove not the ancient landmark,

Which thy fathers have set.

²⁹Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings;

He shall not stand before mean men.